And here we are again, darling. This time without a three month gap. July is complete and good lord was it busy. It was abnormally busy. It was full of medical malarky, travel, and the most boring making of all time. But, it was a really great month. I am still dealing with the spine bullshitery, so the making is small, portable, and on-going. There will be several other posts that come after this one, but I have to do things one at a time as my pain allows.
Finished objects:
Hexi-flats- 47 of them to be exact. My goal was 50, but such is life. This is the unstuffed version of the Bee Keeper’s Quilt pattern. They are being knit with all of my leftover sock yarn held double with fingering weight yarn in a natural color. (There will be a separate post for this project.)
A wall mounted kitty scratching board. I had the board, hot glue, and one of the two colors of rope. L & E are Lillie & Esme. I am ashamed to admit that I finished this in June, but forgot to post it until now.
Works in progress:
Ladder Tank
Fuzzy hat
Safran Top
Goals for next month:
Knit at least 50 Hexi-flats
Start more (gentle) core exercises
USE MY CIRCULAR SOCK MACHINE!
Sew a project bag
Summer clothing purge
Well, it isn’t sexy, but I must say that I have been having the best time working on the Hexi-flats. They are so fast, 15-20 minutes each, they are using up leftover yarn, and are very easy on my body to knit. I have no idea how I will group them when all are completed, but I am excited to dream up a plan. The rest of my knitting has stalled pretty hard. I can’t yank out any motivation to finish my works in progress, and unfortunately, my back only allows me to sit for short periods of time. This is putting a damper on just about everything in my life, including my serious backlog of posts. I finally remembered to tell you about the scratching post for my kitties. Please excuse that it’s two months late, but better late than never. I got the idea from Isabella on Breathing Yarn. She has made a couple for her kitties, and I loved the idea. My fingers were singed like what from all of the hot glue, but I have no regrets.
The month itself was really good, overall. We left for our trip to the mid-west on the 1st and didn’t return home till the 8th. There is going to be a separate post about the trip, but suffice it to say that we had a wonderful time. And holy crap did I buy (completely unnecessary) yarn. I went to Hank in Cincinnati OH, Spun in Ann Arbor MI, and Parker Avenue Knits in Detroit MI. And yes, I bought yarn from each shop. I am mildly ashamed, but moderately thrilled. I really have no regrets. We returned just in time for Feebs’s birthday. Holy mother, that girl is 12. I am so completely in love with the person that she is becoming, even when she drives me insane. She wanted to go to Ikea and walk around for as long as she wanted (3 hours of our lives that we will never get back) and go to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. We had a wonderful night celebrating her. I had Saturday morning coffee with the Mother the following day. We got to catch up on what happened while we were gone. She let me know that she has put her house on the market and is planning to buy the house 2 DOORS DOWN FROM ME. I am not unhappy about this decision, but it is a big one to make. I know in my heart that if it works out, it will be the best thing in the long run. For now, though, it is really freaking close. We will see what happens, stay tuned. Later that day was Dave’s celebration of life in Napa. We all went and celebrated a man that I cared for deeply. That next week was treatment, and it is becoming a bit more challenging each month. Unfortunately my veins aren’t really thrilled with the twice monthly IVs, and it is becoming more troublesome and painful to find viable ones. One of the nurses mentioned that may require a long term port if my treatment continues much longer. Good times. Mid-week we had the pleasure of attending one of my brother-in-law’s 50th birthday non-party. He asked for something small and intimate, and in true Sister #3 fashion, she ignored him and threw a surprise party. It was such a good time! I can’t believe he is 50. I have known him since I was 9 and he was 15. I love him so much. The end of that week saw all kinds of fun medical scans and biopsies searching for signs of endometriosis. Fortunately, I am all clear. That is really good and now we can find a solution to my issue. That weekend I got to enjoy a delightful clear liquid diet, followed by two straight days, and 8 liters, of colonoscopy prep to ready me for my appointment that week. Do I get to just follow the regular people guidelines and just drinking one of those vile containers? No, I get the pleasure of drinking two of them. And not eating for 3 days. And none of it even works on me, so I am still having the doctors tell me that I didn’t follow the prep instructions. No actually, I would be better off swallowing dynamite instead of that disgusting brew. Maybe it would be more effective, and would probably taste better too. That following weekend, Feebs and I had lunch and mini-golf with the female and little Clay. It was delightful and the kids had a blast together. I also got together with the best Auntie-in-law. She is an absolute delight and we had a wonderful time. We got all caught up and we have committed to doing better about setting up monthly get togethers. I also FINALLY had a gardener come to the house and get the front yard cleaned up. The bushes are all trimmed, the weeds and shit tree shoots are gone, and the walkway isn’t as treacherous as it was previously. He will come twice a month, regularly. He will also handle the big weed cloth and rock project, so that we no longer look like the trash of the neighborhood. It took me a long time to get traction on the project, but, we are finally getting it done. The last week of the month was still pretty full with a dentist visit (no cavity club for me!) and a visit with the Father. As usual, we had a really nice time with him.
And that wrapped up the month. It was crazy busy, and I am ashamed to say that I only worked nine days over the entire month. That is shocking, but it was necessary. I wrapped up the month with more health answers than questions and that was quite refreshing. I will have more answers next month, so updates to come.
I am incredibly grateful for the month that I had. I am grateful for fun travel, awesome friends, and new memories. I so very grateful for my little family and the larger and chosen families as well. I am grateful for my job and the flexibility to handle the shit that needs to be handled. I am grateful for answers to long standing questions. I am grateful for my body, in spite of it’s current limitations. I am just really grateful to be alive and whole and able to engage in my life. I am very hopeful that next month will hold even more answers and possibilities.
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 